Catherine the Great of all Russia

Catherine the Great of all Russia Essay Catherine II (a. k. a. Catherine the Great) Catherine II, or Catherine the Great, empress of all Russia, did much to continue the process of Westernization reforms began by Peter the Great. Catherine was devoted to art, literature, science, and politics. Many people say she had a great gift and was a great leader, thus she was awarded with the name the Great She helped develop schools, hospitals, and many other organizations for the country. She was a shrewd leader and autocrat and helped to continue and further reforms made by Peter the Great, finally making Russia a permanent European power. Originally named Sophie Frederick Augusta, Princess of Anholt-Zerbst, she was born in Stettin on May 2, 1729, the daughter of the German prince of Anholt-Zerbst . At the age of fifteen she went to Russia and married Grand Duke Peter of Holstein, heir to the Russian throne. The marriage was despondent, but intelligent and ambitious Catherine soon managed to assemble up a liaison of supporters. On October 1, 1754, Catherine gave birth to her son, the future emperor, Paul Petrovich Romanov, and three years later on December 20, 1957, she gave birth to her daughter, Anna Petrovna Romanov. Elizabeth died on December 25, 1761, and Catherines husband succeeded as Peter III. Erratic, unstable, and contemptuous of his Russian subjects, the new ruler soon made himself unpopular, especially with certain German officers. Led by Alexei Orlov (whose brother Grigori was Catherines lover) the officers staged a coup in June 1762. Peter was deposed (and subsequently murdered) and Catherine was placed on the throne in his place. Catherine was fascinated with the philosophies and theories of the Enlightenment, and was well acquainted with the literature of the French Enlightenment, which was an important influence on her own political influence. She corresponded extensively with Voltaire and Denis Diderot, gave financial support to them and a number of other French writers, and played host to Diderot at her court in 1773. Although, this gesticulation of hospitality was partially aimed at creating a favorable image in Western Europe, she was probably sincere in her interest and her hope to apply some of the ideas of the Enlightenment to rationalize and reform the administration of the Russian Empire. Imbued with the ideas of the Enlightenment, Catherine aimed at completing the job started by Peter the Greatwesternizing Russiabut she had contradictory methods. Rather then forcing society to reform, she encouraged individual initiative in pursuit of self-interest. In the early years of her reign, she sought to win the support of the Russian gentry, and, in particular Despite her interest in legal reform, the commission she appointed for that purpose failed to accomplish its goals. But eventually, she learned how to select capable assistantsfor example, Nikita Panin in foreign affairs, Alexandre Suvorov in the military, and Grigori Potemkin in administration. Among Catherines more benevolent achievements were the foundation of the first Russian school for girls and of a medical college to provide health care for her subjects. In the early years of her reign, Catherine sought to win the approval of the gentry, which was a small part of Russias population. She succeeded to a degree with the upper class, but did nothing for the overwhelming majority of the populationthe enserfed peasantry. Conservatism Peasant unrest culminated in a great revolt (1773-75), led by Cossack Yemelyan Pugachov, that raged over much of the Volga River Basin and the Ural Mountains before it was finally ruthlessly crushed by military force. The revolt marked a turn toward more reactionary internal policy. READ: Essay about College Tuition Is Too High EssayThe Cossack army was disbanded, and other Cossacks were granted special privileges in an effort to transform them into loyal supporters of the autocracy. The revolt alerted Catherine to the necessity for reform. In 1775, she reorganized the local administration, integrated the Cossacks into the regular army, and put the serfs belonging to the Russian Orthodox Church under the administration of the state. In 1785, she issued two chartersto the towns and to the nobilityto involve the educated classed in local administration in return for protection of their status and property rights. In similar spirit, Catherine established the Free Economic Society to encourage the modernization of agriculture and industry. She promoted trade and the development of underpopulated regions by inviting foreign settlers such as the Volga Germans, and she founded new towns (Odessa, for example) and enterprises on the Black Sea. Herself a prolific writer, Catherine patronized arts and letters, permitted the establishment of private printing presses, and relaxed censorship rules. Under her guidance the University of Moscow and the Academy of Sciences became internationally recognized centers of learning; she also increased the number of state and private schools. As a result, the Russian nobility, and some townspeople, also began to organize associations for the promotion of schools and publications. Catherine, who did not want to surrender control over social and cultural policy, viewed these activities with suspicion. The outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 and the publication of Alexandre Radishchevs journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow in 1790, in which the author denounced the evils of serfdom, the immorality of society, and the abuses of government, prompted Catherine to impose repressive measures, which in turn alienated many of the educated. Finally, Catherine vastly expanded the Russian empire. Following the two successful wars against Turkey (the Russo-Turkish Wars of 1768-74 and 1787-92), Russia secured the Crimea and thus realized a centuries-old dream of establishing itself on the north shore of the black Sea. The fertile lands of the Ukraine were also opened for settlement and soon became the granary of Europe. Catherine also participated in the partitions of Poland (1772,1792, and 1795) bringing a large part of that country under Russian rule. Catherine had twenty-one lovers, and her spirit doctor inspected them all before they could be her lover but Sergei Vasiljevits Saltykov (father of her first son) and Grigori Orlov (father of second son) were special to her. Upon the death of Catherine on November 17, 1796, modern Russian society was organized and its culture had struck firm roots. Russia was also playing a determining role in world affairs.

Food science. Upon rehydrating dried apples slices, you found that the Essay

Food science. Upon rehydrating dried apples slices, you found that the slices did return to the original water content. What phenomenon was responsible - Essay Example Rehydration can be considered as a measure of the injury to the material caused by drying and treatments preceding dehydration (Okos et al., 1992; McMinn & Magee, 1997a). Rehydration of dried plant tissues is composed of three simultaneous processes: the imbibition of water into dried material, the swelling and the leaching of solubles (McMinn & Magee, 1997b; Lewicki, 1998). It has been shown that (Steffe & Singh, 1980) the volume changes (swelling) of biological materials are often proportional to the amount of absorbed water. Fan et al. (1962) found that the gain in volume caused by water sorption equalled the volume of imbibed water. On the other hand, the moisture-induced swelling of soybean and pigeon pea grains was always less than the volume of sorbed water (Singh & Kulshrestha, 1987). Studies of the volume increase of semolina (Bhattacharya, 1995) and soybean showed that rehydration temperature markedly affected volume increase. It is generally accepted that the degree of rehydration is dependent on the degree of cellular and structural disruption. During drying, Jayaraman et al. (1990) observed irreversible cellular rupture and dislocation, resulting in loss of integrity and hence, a dense structure of collapsed, greatly shrunken capillaries with reduced hydrophilic properties, as reflected by the inability to imbibe sufficient water to rehydrate fully. The objectives of this investigation were to test the hypothesis that a generalized model to describe the following structural properties during rehydration could be generated. The properties were true density, apparent density, porosity and specific volume of dehydrated apple, banana, potato and carrot during

Two-Way Bilingualism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Two-Way Bilingualism - Essay Example Emerging results of studies of two-way bilingual programs point to their effectiveness in educating nonnative-English-speaking students, their promise of expanding our nations language resources by conserving the native language skills of minority students and developing second language skills in English-speaking students, and their hope of improving relationships between majority and minority groups by enhancing cross-cultural understanding and appreciation†. (Donna Christian, 1994) Most Two-way bilingual programs do not segregate language minority and language majority students. They also provide instructions in, and through, the two chosen languages. One of it is obviously the native language of the student from the minority community, and the other one is inevitably English. The former is also called as the target language. The programs attempt to teach students regular subjects while also developing their understanding of languages. To reap full rewards from this system of education, â€Å"students from the two language backgrounds are in each class, and they are integrated for most or all of their content instruction†. These programs are also beneficial in that they create an atmosphere that promotes favorable attitudes toward both languages and their respective cultures. The program is framed in such a way that the students achieve expertise in both their native language and English. There are other merits to two-way bilingual programs. Firstly, they help address several serious issues facing the present state of education. They also help in creating an intuitive and easy-to-learn approach to educate the increasing number of nonnative-English-speaking students registering in American schools. This is done in an â€Å"additive bilingual environment† that not only encourages development of native language and English, but also ensures general academic progress. Furthermore, â€Å"They promise to expand

The Influence of Gender and Age on the Second Language Acquisition of Research Paper

The Influence of Gender and Age on the Second Language Acquisition of University Students in South Korea - Research Paper Example It is so important that some companies and industries like healthcare include English proficiency among their requirements (Lorenzo, 2007). Moreover, many families travel abroad for several reasons, and this may require that they speak the language of the country they are in other than their native language (Gordon, 2000). Like learning a native language, secondary language acquisition is influenced by a variety of factors and outcomes may vary depending on the leaning style of the student, age, gender, and even culture. Similar to secondary language acquisition, learning style is influenced by age and gender. Learning style is defined as a persons personal choice of the way or method on how he can best gather data, process it, and put it to later use in terms of concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. It was suggested by Kolb (1976) that an individual learner has particular strengths with related to his particular learning style. Moreover, the term refers to the individual differences in approaches to learning based on preferences. It pertains to the ways in which an individual characteristically acquires, retains, and retrieves information (Felder and Henriques, 1995). A study conducted by Ramayah, Sivanandan, Nasrijal, Letchumanan, and Leong (2009) explored the relationship between learning style and gender among business students. The study used a questionnaire to collect and gather data, and classified the participants using VARK (Visual, Auditory, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic) by Fleming. A convenience sampling method was used to ensure that an adequate number of samples are able to participate. The results indicate that there is a significant difference between their learning styles in terms of gender, with female participants highly preferring a visual or auditory learning style than male participants.

Business decision making in different ways

Business decision making in different ways 1.0 Introduction This project is not only done for the sake of submitting as we are asked to but also to gain knowledge by a lot of means in both practical and theoretical ways. Text books and study guides cannot give complete knowledge to any student. And I believe that the assignments are given for students to gain extra practical knowledge from the wide world around. In the study of business decision making us mainly focus on the knowledge of different methods of data analyses and how it is useful for business contest and then the presentation of data in an appropriate way to make decisions and predictions. Its purpose is to build better understanding of different business issues and the ways to tackle them. This project report is under the wide range of business decision making of an organization. We have discussed representative measures and measures of dispersions and the difference between them and how they are used to interpret information in a useful manner. After that we use graphs to prese nt the data in order to make them easy then using the graphs I draw some conclusion for business purposes. Finally we have given some solutions for a company which is encountering problems in telecommunications and inventory control. I have discussed the usefulness of intranet in the process of inventory control to overcome from poor inventory management. Also I have provided some solutions by comparing two proposals using DCF and IRR techniques and clearly mention which proposal the company should adopt in order to enhance its inventory control capacity effectively. This report helped me to apply the theoretical knowledge into real world examples and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages and make business decisions. 2.1Collecting and maintaining the medical data and Medical Records. In modern clinics and hospitals, and in many public health departments, data in each of these categories can be found in the records of individuals who have received services there, but not all the data are in the same file. Administrative and economic data are usually in separate files from clinical data; both are linked by personal identifying information. Behavioural information, such as the fact that an individual did not obtain prescribed medication or fails to keep appointments can be extracted by linking facts in a clinical record with the records of medications dispensed and/or appointments kept. Records in hospitals and clinics are mostly computer-processed and stored, so it is technically feasible to extract and analyze the relevant information, for instance, occupation, diagnosis, and method of payment for the service that was provided, or behavioural information. Such analyses are often conducted for routine or for research purposes, although there are some ethical constr aints to protect the privacy and preserve the confidentiality of individuals. Primary sources- Primary data sources are where YOU yourself have collected the data and it is not someone elses. For example a questionnaire created by you and handed out to the specific people, is a primary source. You can then use them to prove a certain hypothesis and explain a situation. Statistics, Surveys, Opinion polls, Scientific data, Transcripts Records of organizations and government agencies Secondary data- Secondary data are indispensable for most organizational research. Secondary data refer to information gathered by someone other than the researcher conducting the current study. Books Periodicals government publications of economic indicators, Census data, Statistical abstracts, Data bases, The media, annual reports of companies, Case studies Other archival records. 2.2 Data collection methodology and Questionnaire Records of Births and Deaths Vital records (certifications of births and deaths) are similarly computer-stored and can be analyzed in many ways. Collection of data for birth and death certificates relies on the fact that recording of both births and deaths is a legal obligation—and individuals have powerful reasons, including financial incentives such as collection of insurance benefits, for completing all the formal procedures for certification of these vital events. The paper records that individuals require for various purposes are collected and collated in regional and national offices, such as the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, and published in monthly bulletins and annual reports. Birth certificates record details such as full name, birthdate, names and ages of parents, birthplace, and birthweight. These items of information can be used to construct a unique sequence of numbers and alphabet letters to identify each individual with a high degree of precision. Death certificates contain a great deal of valuable information: name at birth as well as at death, age, sex, place of birth as well as death, and cause of death. The personal identifying information can be used to link the death certificate to other health records. The reliability of death certificate data varies according to the cause and place: Deaths in hospitals have usually been preceded by a sufficient opportunity for investigations to yield a reliable diagnosis, but deaths at home may be associated with illnesses that have not been investigated, so they may have only patchy and incomplete old medical records or the family doctors working diagnosis, which may be no more than an educated guess. Deaths in other places, such as on the street or at work, are usually investigated by a coroner or medical examiner, so the information is reasonably reliable. Other vital records, for example, marriages and divorces and dissolution of marriages, have less direct utility for health purposes but do shed some light on aspects of social health. Health Surveys Unlike births and deaths, health surveys are experienced by only a sample of the people; but if it is a statistically representative sample, inferences about findings can be generalized with some confidence. Survey data may be collected by asking questions either in an oral interview or over the telephone, or by giving the respondents a written questionnaire and collecting their answers. The survey data are collated, checked, edited for consistency, processed and analyzed generally by means of a package computer program. A very wide variety of data can be collected this way, covering details such as past medical events, personal habits, family history, occupation, income, social status, family and other support networks, and so on. In the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Surveys, physical examinations, such as blood pressure measurement, and laboratory tests, such as blood chemistry and counts, are carried out on a subsample. Records of medical examinations on school children, military recruits, or applicants for employment in many industries are potentially another useful source of data, but these records tend to be scattered over many different sites and it is logistically difficult to collect and collate them centrally. Health Research Data The depth, range, and scope of data collected in health is diverse and complex, so it cannot be considered in detail here. Research on fields as diverse as biochemistry, psychology, genetics, and sports physiology have usefully illuminated aspects of population health, but the problem of central collection and collation and of making valid generalizations reduces the usefulness of most data from health-related research for the purpose of delineating aspects of national health. Unobtrusive Data Sources and Methods of Collection Unobtrusive methods and indirect methods can be a rich source of information from which it is sometimes possible to make important inferences about the health of the population or samples thereof. Economic statistics such as sales of tobacco and alcohol reveal national consumption patterns; counting cigarette butts in school playgrounds under collected conditions is an unobtrusive way to get a very rough measure of cigarette consumption by school children. Calls to the police to settle domestic disturbances provide a rough measure of the prevalence of family violence. Traffic crashes involving police reports and/or insurance claims reveal much about aspects of risk-taking behavior, for example, the dangerous practice of using cell phones while driving. These are among many examples of unobtrusive data sources, offered merely to illustrate the potential value of this approach. The questionnaire contains something in each of the following categories: Personal identifying data: name, age (birth date), sex, and so on. Socio-demographic data: sex, age, occupation, place of residence. Clinical data: medical history, investigations, diagnoses, treatment regimens. Administrative data: referrals, sites of care. Economic data: insurance coverage, method of payment. Behavioral data: adherence to the recommended regimen (or otherwise). 3.0 Data Analysis Representative Values. These are also called as measures of location or measures of central tendency. They indicate the canter or most typical value of a data set lies. This includes three important measures: mean, median and mode. Mean and median can be only applied for quantitative data, but mode can be used with either quantitative or qualitative data. Mean This is the most commonly used measure which is the average of a data set. This is the sum of the observations divided by the number of observations. Advantages of mean-objective: Easy to calculate Easy to understand Calculated from all the data. Disadvantages-affected by-outlying values May be some distance from most values. Median Median of a data set is the number that divides the bottom 50% of the data from the top 50%. Advantages- Easy to understand Give a value that actually occurred Not being affected by outlying values. Disadvantages- Does not consider all the data Can be used only with cardinal data. Not easy to use in other analyses. Mode Mode of a data set is the number that occur frequently (more than one) Advantages- Being an actual value Not affected by outlying value Disadvantages- Can be more than one mode or none Does not consider all the data Cannot be used in further analyses. Comparison of mean, median and mode For this garage, its representative values are as follows, Mean- 335 Median- 323 Mode- 430 As we can see mean and median does not vary drastically, but mode on the other hand varies. Here the owner has to select which price he has to charge among all these. Mode is very high and it doesnt consider all the values, so if the owner charge  £430 it will be expensive and the customers may switch to competitors. Therefore, owner should not choose mode. Now the selection is between mean and median. Both of them look reasonable and close to most of the cost in October. Median is usually preferred when the data set have more extreme observations. Unless it is likely to select mean because it considers all the data. From the overview of the cost in October it doesnt have extreme values at all. So the mean value wouldnt have affected much. Therefore it is advisable that the owner chooses the mean value of  £335 Measures of Dispersion Representative measures only indicate the location of a set of data and two data sets can have same mean, median and mode. In that case we cannot make any decision using representative values. To describe the difference we use a descriptive measure that indicates the amount of variation which is known as measures of dispersion or measures of spread. This includes the following measurements: Range-Range is simply the difference between the highest value and the lowest value. It is easy to calculate and understand, but it only consider the largest and smallest value and ignore all the other values and it is highly affected by extreme values. Quartile range- Quartile range is the difference between 3rd quartile and 1st quartile. It is also easy to calculate, but it does not consider all the values in a data set so it is not a good indicator. Variance and Standard Deviation- Variance measures how far the observations are from the mean. This is more important statistics because it considers all the observations and is used for further analysis. Standard deviation is the square root of variance. Both variance and standard deviation provide useful information for decision making and making comparisons. From the calculation range is  £284 and quartile range is  £170, but because of the defects of them we cannot use them to derive further decisions. Variance is 8426.9 and standard deviation is 91.79. From the figures we can see observations are highly deviated from the mean. Variance and Standard deviations are used to compare two data sets. So the owner of this garage can compare these two figures with a similar garage or the cost of November and make decisions such as select the price which has smaller variance and standard deviation. Quartiles and percentiles also like representative measure. They indicate the percentage of value below a certain value i.e. 3rd quartile indicate 75% of the observations are below a certain amount and 25% of observations are above. Quartiles and percentile values of the garage Quartiles- 1 248.5 2 322.5 3 418.5 Percentiles- 75% 418.5 50% 322.5 60% 349.4 From the above figures we can see only 25% of the values are above  £418 so we shouldnt charge a price above than that if we do so we will lose many of their customers. 25% of the observations are above  £248.5 so we have to select a price between  £248 and  £ 418. Earlier we have found out the mean which is  £335. This is between 2nd quartile and 60% of percentile. So from the use of quartile and percentile we can select  £335 as the service price. Thus quartile and percentile help us in decision making. Correlation coefficient measures the strength of the linear relationship between two variables. It is denoted by â€Å"r†. Value of â€Å"r† always lie between -1 and +1. If â€Å"r† is closer to +1, two variables have strong positive relationship. Correlation and coefficient also helps to make business decisions. 4.0 Presentation of Information Tables are good at presenting a lot of information, but it can still be difficult to identify the underlying patterns. Therefore the uses of charts and graphs play an important part in data presentation in an effective way. Graphical method includes scatter graph, bar charts, line charts, pie charts and histograms. Pie charts They are simple diagrams that give a summary of categorical data. Each slice of a circle represents one category. Pie charts are very simple and can make an impact but they show only very small amounts of data. When there is more data it becomes complicated and confusing. But using pie charts we can make comparisons. Here we can see the amount of commission Trevor plc paid is increasing because year 2008 has big proportion in the circle then 2007,2006 and 2005.so we can expect the amount will be higher than 2008 for the next year. Bar Charts Like pie charts, bar charts show the number of observations in different categories. Each category is represented by separate bar and the length of the bar is proportionate to the number of observations. Contrast to pie chart, more amounts of data can be plotted in bar charts. It is easy to make comparisons in different periods with different observations. Here sales of BMW and Mercedes are increasing continuously but sales of other cars fluctuating. Also we can see over all turn over also increasing year by year. Line Chart This is also another way of data presenting. Here we use line rather than using bar or circles. It is easy to draw line chart and easy to understand the underlying trend and make predictions. Area chart also like line chart but it shows the whole amount and shows each category as area. By using area chart we can understand the trend and also make comparisons. Line chart of Trevor plc indicates except Lexus, sales of other cars are increasing. But Mercedes show a dramatic increase from 2006 to 2008. During the period between 2005 and 2006 car sales tend to be steady. From the out come of this line chart Trevor plc mainly focus on BMW and Mercedes to increase its turn over in the forth coming years. Area chart also indicates the same result that line chart shows. Scatter Diagram and the trend line Scatter diagram drawn using two variables. Here we draw commission against year. Commission is plot in the â€Å"y† axis and year in the â€Å"x† axis. Scatter diagram explain the relationship between two variables whether they are positively or negatively correlated and whether they are strong or weak. Commission has a positive relationship with year for Trevor plc and the relationship is strong because most of the observation lies closer to straight line. We have calculated the correlation coefficient between commission and year and it comes 0.9744 this indicates strong positive relationship. Trend lines used to understand the underlying trend and make useful forecasting. The trend line of Trevor plc shows upward trend among commission and year. We can predict the commission would be approximately  £18000 in 2009 and it would be  £18500- £19000 in year 2009. 6.0 Intranet To: The Board of Directors From: Management Consultant Date: 20.12.2009 Subject: Intranet and its evaluation Intranet is a private network that is contained within an enterprise. It may consist of many interlinked local area networks. Typically, an intranet includes connections through one or more gateway computers to the outside Internet. The main purpose of an intranet is to share company information and computing resources among employees. And also to share information within the branches of the same organisation. Advantages: Easy access to internal and external information Improves communication Increases collaboration and coordination Supports links with customers and partners Can capture and share knowledge Productivity can be increased Margins of errors will be reduced High flexibility It provides with timely and accurate information It allows communication within the branches of the organisation. Disadvantages: Installation can maintenance can be expensive. This may reduce face to face meetings with clients or business partners. 7.0 Management Information System Management information system (MIS) is a system that allows managers to make decisions for the successful operation of businesses. Management information systems consist of computer resources, people, and procedures used in the modern business enterprise. MIS also refers to the organization that develops and maintains most or all of the computer systems in the enterprise so that managers can make decisions. The goal of the MIS organization is to deliver information systems to the various levels of managers: Strategic, Tactical and Operational levels. Types of Information vary according to the levels of management. Strategic management will need information for long term planning and corporate strategy. This will be less structured. Tactical Management needs to take short term decisions to focus on improving profitability and performance. Operational management needs information on day to day operations of the organisation. 11.0 Conclusion Finally, I would like to conclude my report on Business Decision making. Firstly, I started with various method of data collection the analysis of the data gathered and prepared a sample questionnaire based on the example used. Then the presentation of data through tables have been discussed and continued with the information for decision making. Afterwards, I moved to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of Intranet and its usefulness in controlling inventory. I also discussed about various inventory control methods used by organisations. Finally, I drew a conclusion on the investment decision scenario given. This report made me clearly understand all the subject areas I learnt in the lectures and I found it useful.

Religion and Spirituality Essay -- Religious Christianity Essays

Religion and Spirituality Since the dawn of human life, people have eternally been searching for the purpose of existence. Humans are innately curious beings, and are blessed to have the capabilities of higher thought processes. Humans use these thought processes to ponder the question of existence. Unfortunately, the evolution of man has not brought the human race any closer to actualizing its purpose on earth. In fact, this issue is such that the more one feels he or she understands it, the more questions concerning it arise. This problem perpetuates itself by the confusion of religion and spirituality, and the roles they hold in society. As the human race evolves, it feels the need to designate structure to its world. As a means to provide structure, man creates both systems of social order, as well as systems of belief. The purpose of the two systems is to explain unknown phenomenon while creating an environment where societies can grow. Humans do this because they have an innate drive to bo th explain the unknown in addition to perpetuating a society that holds common beliefs and values. One can define these two systems as religion and spirituality. The problem lies in the fact that these two systems are so closely intertwined that oftentimes they are confused as being synonymous. However, this is most definitely not the case. On the contrary, religion’s purpose is to create social structure and congruency. Religion is driven by social purpose, and can be exploited. In fact, a small part of every religion serves a selfish purpose rather than an honorable one. Religion’s purpose is completely different from the purpose of spirituality. Spirituality, on the other hand, deals with personal beliefs about ... .... Vol. 7. 230-282. 1971. â€Å"Crusade.† Encyclopedia Britannica. Howerth, Ira. â€Å"What is Religion?† International Journal of Ethics. 1983. â€Å"Jihad.† Encyclopedia Britannica. Mathur, D.C. â€Å"The Concept of Action in the Bhagvad-Gita.† Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 1974. McClenon, James. â€Å"Human Evolution and the Origin of Religion.† Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 345-357. Sept. 1997 Radcliffe-Brown, A.R. â€Å"Religion and Society.† Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 1972. Rosengren, Karl. â€Å"The Riddle of the Empty Cell.† Current Anthropology. Vol. 17. 1996. Stewart, Gutherie. â€Å"Religion: What is it?† Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 412-419. Dec. 1998.

The Taste of Watermelon

The story was written by Borden Deal, who died in 1985. He was an American novelist and writer of short stories. The story was set in the United States of America in a small village of the countryside. The main characters in the short story were, Freddy Grey and J. D. who are the narrators friends, Mr. Wills who is the father of the beautiful girl, and of course the beautiful girl – Willadean. The narrator has known his guy friends, Freddy Grey and J. D. for years since he moved to this place and started going to school. Willadean is this girl that the narrator is interested in, she is tall and slender. Mr. Wills who is Willadean’s father who everybody was afraid of. He has bright, fierce eyes under heavy eyebrows. The story is about this boy (the narrator) who moved to this certain place and started going to school, was never interested into girls, but he did have an eye on this girl called Willadean. Last year she was nothing compared to who she is now. The narrator mentions how her walk started to turn him on, and how beautiful she really was. But he was afraid to get close to her, cause of her father Mr. Wills who would shake anybody’s soul inside them, with his yelling and always being angry. He had been growing this specific watermelon for a really long time but the narrator decides to steal it at night, most probably to get closer to Willadean, to show that he is not afraid of Mr. Wills where as he really is. He brings his friends Freddy Gray and J. D. with him for support and to help him out, the boys tell him not to do this terrible thing, but unfortunately, he does it. In the end Mr. Wills gets sad after finding out that his watermelon has been kidnapped and bursts out into tears. The narrator does not get closer to Willadean unfortunately and doesn’t even try anymore. The style of the story is written in 3rd person. It uses a lot of hyperbole sentences to make it sound and look more dramatic has really warm atmosphere which really gives the love atmosphere away, which explains a lot of details in certain paragraphs of the story ‘The taste of watermelon’. Maybe the narrator would be able to add some alliteration to make it seem more dramatic. And I would add some more details about the characters to get a much better idea of the characters and be able to picture the characters in your head, to make it seem much easier to you. I enjoyed reading this story. I found it interesting because of the theme of the story, which is basically – love. Because this boy (the narrator) is in love with this girl Willadean and to get closer to her, he decides to steal her father’s watermelon which he had been growing for a really long time. As well as making him extremely mad for once to see the father’s reaction. In the end, the father burst into tears and was very sad for losing his ‘baby’ watermelon; he loved his watermelon so much that Willadean thought he loved the watermelon more than his own daughter. It just really interested me. The Taste of Watermelon Taste of Watermelon is written by Borden Deal. Taste of Watermelon is written in the year of 1979. It is a short story. He is an American author who is dead! He has been dead 25 years. The Taste of Watermelon is set in the country side where a bunch of farmers live. It is set in the states because of the language used. For example ‘golly’ and ‘gosh’. It is set in around the 1970s, the time it was written in. There are 4 main characters I would say. There is Mr. Will who is an old man who is a farmer and every night he guards his huge watermelon with a gun. Then there is a boy who steals the watermelon and eats it up with his friends. He then after he steals it feels really bad and collects the seeds from the floor and gives them to Mr. Wills The story is basically about a boy who steals the watermelon from Mr. Wills and together with his friends; Freddy, Gary, and J. D. , they eat as much as they can of the watermelon and destroy whatever is left. The boy goes home and watches Mr. Wills as he realizes that his watermelon has been stolen. He freaks out and starts destroying all the other watermelons and the boy after a night of not sleeping together with his dad collects all the seeds he could find and gives them to Mr. Wills to plant a field of watermelons for the following year. Mr. wills accepts his apology and is pleased to hear that the boy would love to help Mr. Wills in planting all these seeds. Mr. Wills is happy ?. The author uses 1st person. I personally prefer reading stories written in first person so I as the reader can make a character. When a story is written in first person it is usually more emotional and personal. The language used in this story is pleasant. It is not to formal or informal. The dialogue is funny as it is written in Old American Farmer Language like when they use ‘golly’ and ‘gosh’ I find it very amusing. There isn’t too much description in this story which I absolutely hate so ? I think the main point of this story is to entertain. Yes there is a morale behind everything like in this case it is basically don’t steal and if you do have the courage and decency to own up. But still it seems to me as if the idea of this story is that the writer wanted to write a story that would interest people and they would enjoy reading it. I don’t think that he wanted to send a message across to his readers. It was a great story and I really enjoyed it. It was a bit on the longish side but still enjoyable. The idea was original and really interesting to read. There was a good amount of suspense in this story and it was balanced out between boring bits and funny of interesting bits. As I said before the description wasn’t over done which I can’t stand so on a whole it deserves a ?